Architectural Photography
Photography is a continual experiment for me – there are some constants that work, like how black and white photographs will emphasize form and contrast, and then, I marvel how, with color images, one can, with careful design, emphasize these same constants of form and contrast.
Buildings are best shown in black and white, to emphasize form, texture, and contrasts. With the absence of color, the image can focus in on the subject of the photograph. Black and white photographs can give a clearer interpretation of the subject matter because of the lack of distractions that color provides. Color photography represents reality in images; where as black and white photography interprets reality.
Color in architectural photography depicts the reality of materials used and the composition of the various types and textures that make up the materials and forms. This provides a gestalt effect that combines all of these depictions of reality in a photograph. Given the design and composition of a color photograph this gestalt effect can achieve compelling images.
Art is in the eye of the beholder. We all will have our interpretation and preference as to which images are more powerful than the other. Yours is to wonder.
C. Noël Kennard AIA, LEED AP BD+C
